by ModelFunShipyard » Sat Jun 06, 2026 8:48 am
@81542 Thank you for the insight. I can see the point of not wanting to put ashore all boats on the part of the sailors, on the other hand ships like Derfflinger don't have the issue of boats interfering with arcs of fire - Seydlitz does, but to a lesser extent than the Kaiser class.
81542 wrote: Sat Jun 06, 2026 8:08 am
I doubt very much that they would have been stowed in such a manner on the operation that they would have impeded operation of the main armament. The photographs of the two ships above show that what they were apparently carrying were well out of the way of the main guns.
I thought the same, the problem lies in identifying those spots. The other issue is, Ithink the complement of boats would have been reduced compared to when originally built; I haven't come across any definitive photos yet for German ships, but I know for a fact that was the case on some of the British ones. For example, when working on Lion last month, I discovered the boat stowage between the first two funnel was completely deleted - there's a photo of that portion of deck where the ships' chocks used to rest that has been plated over, you can still clearly see their outline, and Carley floats had been added aft.I believe that they were removed to avoid a splinter hazard, but also because two 3'' guns were added on deck abreast of that position, so that could also have hindered gun operations.
My hunch for FdG is that they would have removed the innermost boats, those closest to the back of the turrets when rotating out to the sides, and those on davits at deck edge, because those would have suffered the most from blast overpressure.
@81542 Thank you for the insight. I can see the point of not wanting to put ashore all boats on the part of the sailors, on the other hand ships like Derfflinger don't have the issue of boats interfering with arcs of fire - Seydlitz does, but to a lesser extent than the Kaiser class.
[quote=81542 post_id=1104995 time=1780751311 user_id=193190]
I doubt very much that they would have been stowed in such a manner on the operation that they would have impeded operation of the main armament. The photographs of the two ships above show that what they were apparently carrying were well out of the way of the main guns.
[/quote]
I thought the same, the problem lies in identifying those spots. The other issue is, Ithink the complement of boats would have been reduced compared to when originally built; I haven't come across any definitive photos yet for German ships, but I know for a fact that was the case on some of the British ones. For example, when working on Lion last month, I discovered the boat stowage between the first two funnel was completely deleted - there's a photo of that portion of deck where the ships' chocks used to rest that has been plated over, you can still clearly see their outline, and Carley floats had been added aft.I believe that they were removed to avoid a splinter hazard, but also because two 3'' guns were added on deck abreast of that position, so that could also have hindered gun operations.
My hunch for FdG is that they would have removed the innermost boats, those closest to the back of the turrets when rotating out to the sides, and those on davits at deck edge, because those would have suffered the most from blast overpressure.